When Malik, Grim Manipulator enters, you and target opponent each secretly choose a creature that player controls. Then those choices are revealed, and that player sacrifices those creatures.
Whenever an opponent sacrifices a creature, you create a Treasure token.
Malik is a Mardu sacrifice/edict commander who punishes opponents' boards: his ETB forces a target opponent to sacrifice creatures, and his static ability turns every opponent-side sacrifice into a Treasure for you. You spend the early game flooding the table with mass-edict effects (Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos) and recursion, snowballing Treasures into removal, big spells, and combo payoffs. You win by grinding the table out of creatures while you ramp ahead, then closing with a Treasure-fueled finisher or a sacrifice loop.
Repeatable edicts strip blockers and force-feed your Treasure engine on every opponent's turn.
Treasure generation gives you ramp, fixing, and combo fodder all at once across three colors.
Blink and recursion make Malik's ETB a recurring board-wipe-on-a-stick.
Excellent in multiplayer—'whenever an opponent sacrifices' triggers off all three opponents simultaneously.
Edicts whiff against decks with tokens or a single must-keep creature, letting opponents chaff off Malik's ETB.
Relies on creatures hitting the board to sacrifice—stax and creatureless control decks blank your engine.
Five mana and creature-dependent, so a removal-heavy table can stall the Treasure faucet.
Little inherent evasion or direct life-pressure; can grind without actually closing the game.
Doubles down on Treasures whenever your creatures die, accelerating into your payoffs.
Lean into density of Grave Pact–style effects and cheap recurring edicts (Plaguecrafter, Cruel Celebrant) so every sacrifice cascades into Treasures and table-wide drain. Add Treasure payoffs and a clean combo line—Mayhem Devil plus a sac loop, or Treasure-powered Torment of Hailfire—to convert the engine into a deterministic kill. Tighten the mana base with fast rocks and untapped fixing, and add protection like Deflecting Swat and Teferi's Protection so your engine survives interaction.
Legendary Creature — Human Rogue
